Trish Thornton's Sports Column Archives

Hype
Good golly! With their big man sidelined with a sprained ankle, the Lakers lost a game. You'd think it was the end of the world. The headlines were all doom and gloom: "Can Lakers last without Shaq?" ... "Mere mortals" ... "One-man team can't win' ... etc. etc. A little melodramatic, no? But then again, we're talking about Hollywood here. And even when the Shaq-less Lakers hit the boards Monday night against Seattle, it took a monstrous game by Kobe Bryant to pull out a win in overtime. Shocking!

But come on... a couple of weak games late in an explosive season does NOT bode badly for the La-La-Lakers. Good teams lose sometimes. The Lakers have lost 13 all season. 13! Stop the presses! As if! Make no mistake, the Lakers are the best team with or without Mr. O'Neal. Believe any hype you want about their greatness or their fallibility, but believe it when we say they'll be in the finals come June!

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - April 11, 2000" »

Posted by trish at 03:19 PM | Permalink

The horror, the horror
This isn't the first time Toronto sports fans have seen a colossal collapse. The Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967 then didn't have a winning record again for 2 decades. In 1987, the Blue Jays were winning the AL east by 3 1/2 with 7 games left to play, then they lost 'em all AND the pennant. So as the Raptors' promising season seems to be ending with a whimper and not a slam, the hardened fans aren't really surprised. And talk about insult to injury: Vince Carter hurt his shoulder in a game against the Pacers last week, and when he left the floor to be examined by the doctors, the whole team seemed to leave with him. Offence? Nope. Defence? Nope. These guys looked like the Clippers on a bad day!

Some people say Toronto will live and die by how its superstar plays. Some say no, it's not a one-man team, the talent is spread all the way down the bench. There are 9 games left in this season of hot and cold flashes. Which Raptor team will we see down the stretch?

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - April 4 2000" »

Posted by trish at 03:13 PM | Permalink

Don't touch the privates!
The NBA brass knows the NBA is in trouble. Why else do they insist on sticking microphones and cameras up the noses of the coaches and players?
Perhaps they think that being able to hear the courtside pep talks and watching our favourite player scratch his naughty bits will make us pour more and more money into their coffers. But the players' union is fighting it. They filed an unfair labour practice charge this week challenging the NBA's "unilateral implementation of a series of intrusive game-day regulations."

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - March 29, 2000" »

Posted by trish at 03:08 PM | Permalink

*********************
Roll up the rim to win™
He did it again. An exciting rim-ripping slam dunk with 1.6 seconds left to beat Hakeem Olajuwon and the Houston Rockets 100-98. And do you know what?

We don't care if you're sick of the Vince Carter love-fest in the media and the odd newsletter. We don't care if you think he's a ball hog, a show boater, a hot dog, a selfish narcissistic limelight lover. The guy is fun to watch. These days even people who don't give a flying hoot about basketball pause to watch the highlight reels on the television. What we're watching here, kids, is an explosive talent, a pure superstar. And even if you don't love him, can't bear his antics, We bet you can't take your eyes off him when he's driving for the net.

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - March 21 2000" »

Posted by trish at 02:55 PM | Permalink

Biblical proportions

And lo, there was a bright new star in the east, and the masses came to wonder at it. They came from the almighty kingdom of NBC to worship the incredible flying man, the saviour of the NBA. They came from Hollywood to sit courtside and be on TV bowing down to the bright star. The incredible flying man's mother looked down from above on her son and saw that she had done good, while the omnipresent Costas, the High priest of NBC preached the from the book of Vince. And how did the young star react to the lofty platitudes of the many? No false prophet, he, as he sailed and soared, swished and dunked in a miraculous 51-point game. For on that day, this one bright star outshone a galaxy of Suns and ascended to that higher place in the kingdom of Jordan.

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - February 29, 2000" »

Posted by trish at 02:41 PM | Permalink

Welcome Back Kareem
Michael is in the front office in Washington, the Bird is behind the bench in Indianpolis, and now the NBA's career scoring leader, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, is an assistant with the lowly Clippers. Is anyone surprised? Not really. The former Bucks/Lakers star had a huge impact on the modern day superstars like Magic, Michael and Malone. The only real surprise is why it took so long for the star of the 1980 hit movie "Airplane" to get back to the NBA. Kareem always figured he'd be back sometime, but thinks no one took him seriously. "I don't know if I was black-balled. I was taken aback when I couldn't get any interviews. That bothered me. It was frustrating." His return to the big game had an immediate impact on the young L.A. squad as they came very close to beating the Knickerbockers from Gotham. Hmmm... maybe they should have brought him in earlier in the year.

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - Feb 22 2000" »

Posted by trish at 02:35 PM | Permalink

Okay everyone, take a breather
The big time slam-dunk, high-scoring spectacle is over, and it's time to separate the pretenders from the contenders. No doubt the west is strong, and one wonders if either the Blazers or the Lakers will make a trade before the February 24th deadline. A trade? Why would they do that? Ain't they the tops of the tops?

Well, L.A. does have a weakness or two... really! Think about a back-up centre, for instance. The Big Man (TM) can't play every minute of every game. And their shooting...? Glen Rice is good, but there are far better perimeter snipers out there.

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - Feb. 15 2000" »

Posted by trish at 02:27 PM | Permalink

Dennis Does Dallas
It looks like incoming Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is going to inflict
another half-season of the attention-starved Dennis Rodman upon us. And those sportswriters licking their chops at writing another chapter of the Rodman follies should wise up: everybody's sick of hearing how Dennis the Menace missed this practice or that flight.

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - February 8, 2000" »

Posted by trish at 02:02 PM | Permalink

So Michael Jordan made his first move as head of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards. Well, um, okay, he wasn't really there and didn't make the announcement, didn't have to break the bad news or do any of the other tough stuff that comes with such a lofty position. But on Saturday while Jordan was in Atlanta for the SuperBowl, the Wizards fired head coach Gar Heard. The news came out right after the lowly team won their 14th game of the season. That's right, after a WIN. Does that ache or what? Former Raptor coach Darrell Walker will become the team's interim coach (he's been coaching a team called the Rockford Lightning in the CBA. Whatever.) Walker was the 2nd choice after a deal with Golden State to get Rod Higgins, Jordan's golf buddy and former teammate, fell apart.

No one, including Heard, was surprised by the move. And really, the guy needs a break. He's toiled as a coach/assistant coach on some pretty awful teams; the 1993 Mavericks (egads!) were 9-44 when he was interim coach there.

As for the players, the perpetually pouty Rod Strickland will be a happier Wizard now. After all, none of the bad stuff this season has been his fault, don't you know?

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - February 1, 2000" »

Posted by trish at 10:41 AM | Permalink

Will they stay or will they go?

Here is your weekly soap opera update of the continuing saga of the Vancouver Grizzlies:

January 20th - St. Louis millionaire Bill Laurie ended the most recent attempt to buy the struggling club from Seattle-owned Orca Bay when the two sides came to an "agreement on the termination of the purchase agreement..." Don't you love lawyers? Anyway, the NBA wouldn't allow the son-in-law of the Wal-Mart King to relocate his new team to the Show Me State. Good news for Vancouver fans, but how long will the city be willing to support 2 lousy sports franchises?

January 24th - Michael Heisley Sr. (why do big-time businessmen always have a Jr. or Sr. behind their names?) a Chicago millionaire steps in and pays $160M for the 5-year-old franchise, saying the magic words "I intend to do everything in my power to make this franchise a success in Vancouver." Uh-huh. Stay tuned.

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - Jan. 25, 2000" »

Posted by trish at 10:02 AM | Permalink

Charlotte Hornets guard Bobby Phills celebrated his 30th birthday last
December. Less than a month later, he was killed in a car accident.
Phills's teammate David Wesley was on the same road at the time, but was not
directly involved in the crash.

How does a team recover from something like this? Phills was an emotional
leader of the underachieving Hornets. Would they make him their
inspiration to help them out of a recent 1-8 skid? Or would the losing
continue?

In their first game after the tragedy, Wesley was still an emotional wreck,
and the team's jump was anything but inspirational. They lost badly to the
Knicks.

But then they went home and played in front of the hometown crowd -
"Phills's Phans." Down by 10 to the Toronto Raptors at the half, the Bees
swarmed the court in the 3rd quarter, scoring 25 straight points. Toronto
still didn't know what hit them. Phills' Phans know!

Continue reading "Basketball Newsletter - Jan 18/2000" »

Posted by trish at 09:59 AM | Permalink